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Book on famous (or notorious) Koch brothers a lively read

Tom Jackson

Jul 22, 2014

If you enjoy nonfiction and are looking for something to read, consider "Sons of Wichita: How the Koch Brothers Became America's Most Powerful and Private Dynasty" by Daniel Schulman. (I listened to it as an audiobook downloaded to my smartphone, a convenient option available to Sandusky Library cardholders and to patrons of other local libraries that are part of the Clevnet system. I seldom bother to check out audiobooks from the library any more — I just download them using the Overdrive app.)

The Koch brothers — or to be precise, two of the four, Charles and David — have been widely vilified by the left for funneling millions of dollars to Republican candidates and are used as boogeymen for Democratic fund-raising efforts. I get fund raising emails from U.S Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, apparently because I write about the politics for the Sandusky Register. When I ran a search of my email inbox for the senator's name and "Koch brothers," I found dozens of messages.

The senator's June 29 missive, which asked if I could chip in at least $5, was typical of his oeuvre.

"The Koch brothers have shown a willingness to meddle in every vote they can, including a local issue about funding for the Columbus Zoo," the email said. "Special interests spent more than $40 million dollars against us in the last election, and we have no idea how much they’ll spend next time around. Our organization has to meet every goal to stay prepared."

Before they became elephant men trying to enable a GOP takeover of the federal government, Charles and David were libertarian purists. They funded many libertarian groups, including the Cato think-tank in Washington, D.C., and David was even the Libertarian Party's vice presidential candidate in 1980. (There are no limits if you are funding your own campaign, so the candidacy allowed Mr. Koch to pour lots of money into the race.)

Although Democrats may scoff, Charles and David come off rather better than the two apolitical (or relatively apolitical) Koch brothers. Charles and David are described as idealists, driven by the desire to advance their political beliefs and to give money to benefit health care and the arts. Bill Koch comes across as mainly interested in dating women (often several at the same time), accumulating money, buying art and wine, and cultivating his numerous feuds. Frederick Koch, the least political of the four, wanted lots of money for buying art and mansions.

Schulman's book is full of surprises, not the least that his book actually is quite fair. Libertarians who have endured an onslaught of biased stories from the likes of Salon and Alternet will find that Schulman, despite his affiliation with liberal "Mother Jones" magazine, does not let any bias he may have get in the way of getting the story right.

Koch-haters will like the book, too, however. The book is unsparing in its depictions of the Koch companies' environmental depredations, and the brothers' sometimes shady political maneuvers.

The book's relatively few readers who are libertarians will enjoy the stories about the Kochs' feuds with famous libertarians such as Murray Rothbard, and the Internet war touched off by their hostile takeover of Cato.

But politics is the least of the book's attractions. My attention flagged a bit at all of the anecdotes about the Kochs martialing armies of right wing plutocrats at yet another anti-Obama rally, a story that's been pretty well told already. It's like reading another rant about the New York Yankees trying to buy up all of the best players. Yeah, yeah, we know already.

I was more interested in the crazy stories about the brothers' bitter feuds, which involved extensive dirty tricks operations and huge stacks of money spent on spying and counter-espionage. There are also allegations that Bill Koch (kind of a real-life J.R. Ewing, in Schulman's telling) kidnapped one of his executives, anecdotes about the Kochs' fancy women (invariably much younger than their very rich consorts) and other tales, which could probably fuel several movies.

One of my favorite stories concerned the Boston museum exhibit that planned to show off art and expensive bottles of wine owned by Bill Koch. One of the centerpieces of the exhibit was supposed to be several bottles of old French wine for which Bill had paid $500,000. The wine bottles were engraved "THJ," allegedly proving that they'd once been owned by Thomas Jefferson.

Alas, a search of the records turned up suspicions that Bill had been cheated. Further investigation showed that the engravings had been made by power tools. Bill Koch, not exactly a turn-the-other-cheek kind of guy, assembled a team of detectives and filed a barrage of lawsuits, eventually collecting large sums of money.

And that's just one of the stories. If you want to learn about Bill Koch's espionage when he competed in the America's Cup yacht race, read the book.

Comments

freespeech1

Tue, 07/22/2014 - 2:26pm

Lets be fair and balanced here, How about the next story on George Soros, or Tom Styer

Contango

Tue, 07/22/2014 - 2:55pm

Re: "shady political maneuvers,"

Comes in both basic conservative and liberal flavors.

Thanks for the review.

The Big Dog's back

Tue, 07/22/2014 - 3:39pm

Oh how the right wingnuts love the rich and powerful. Maybe they'll p ss something down on 'em.

Contango

Tue, 07/22/2014 - 4:34pm

Re: "love the rich and powerful,"

Sen. Obama got a LOT of his '08 campaign cash from Wall St.

Guess he enjoyed his nice warm golden shower eh?

"Guess which President has raked in the most Wall Street bucks in a generation?"

They did not parrot your original post so it makes no sense. Still struggling with a joke, How pathetic.

jazzbo

Wed, 07/23/2014 - 12:16pm

You are wack job , believe it.

Donegan

Wed, 07/23/2014 - 3:37pm

That's all you got huh? I seriously feel sorry for you.

jazzbo

Wed, 07/23/2014 - 11:09pm

So , you get off by being insulted ?
Pervert.
You don't seriously feel sorry for me , liar.

Donegan

Wed, 07/23/2014 - 11:26pm

Seriously, I do feel sorry for you. I feel sorry for all those who are mentally disabled or so unstable that they seem to be.
It is not that i like to be insulted but i understand that is all you can do and you must embrace it. Hopefully someday you will grow up and maybe even become a contributing member of society but that is a awfully big step for someone like you so yeah, I do feel sorry for you. There are plenty such as yourself so you aren't alone, I feel sorry for all those afflicted with your disability. Modern Liberalism is a disease and it needs to be addressed.

jazzbo

Thu, 07/24/2014 - 10:55am

It is your rightwing ideology that has gotten America in such the mess it is and continues to so and you think have the right way ? LOL !

Your condescending false display of sympathy is just that -- I don't feel sorry for you or care if you grow up.
Frankly , people of your mindset scare me.

Donegan

Thu, 07/24/2014 - 11:01am

I do not need your sympathy nor did i expect it from you, I am not a child and cannot be paraded around to further a agenda. That is the only time you delusional people seem to care about anything.
Seek help, You definitely qualify for it.

jazzbo

Thu, 07/24/2014 - 11:17am

You have a child's intellect and you are a clown in a parade of clowns.

Seek help.

Donegan

Thu, 07/24/2014 - 10:34pm

I have known parrots that hold more intelligent conversations than you.

jazzbo

Fri, 07/25/2014 - 10:41am

...and you phuck those parrots too.

Maggdi

Tue, 07/22/2014 - 6:19pm

"beggars are easier to please"

grumpy

Tue, 07/22/2014 - 6:50pm

Good review Tom. Hard to believe some folks can see all sides and write something that is critical, mostly truthful, and entertaining while shelving his political bias. Not an easy bar to clear in these times. Few folks or families are as one demonsional as some folks on here try to paint them to be. But since those folks do seem to be one demonsional... I guess it is not so surprising. Nothing and no one is all black and white, it is mostly gray.

The Hero Zone

Tue, 07/22/2014 - 7:14pm

I agree, grumpy!

It is also good to know about the source of information, too. For instance, I have a book called "World Religions and Cults 101" (http://www.amazon.com/World-Reli...) that does this. Both the authors say plainly before anything else that while they are trying to approach each subject independently, it was fair for the readers to know that both authors were practicing Christians.

I respect that and it makes messages and opinions clearer instead of a an implied or presumed neutrality.

The Big Dog's back

Tue, 07/22/2014 - 10:47pm

Whatever.

Stop It

Wed, 07/23/2014 - 9:08am

If anyone wants to have a hard copy book, movie or whatever type of media, this is a good place to go:

Edit to add: The media is at considerable savings compared to amazon and such. Just because ebay is in the addy doesn't mean bid war. The books/media are priced by use or lack thereof.

ohioengineer

Tue, 07/22/2014 - 9:20pm

I am quick to criticize (fairly, I believe) the SR for its often biased reporting. As I read the title of this article, I expected more of the same liberal slant that most of their "editorials" contain. However, I was pleasantly surprised by Mr. Jackson's fair review. Good job!

The Big Dog's back

Tue, 07/22/2014 - 10:48pm

Biased reporting to you is when they print facts.

Bottom Line

Tue, 07/22/2014 - 11:12pm

What do you know about facts? You never use or cite ANY.

jazzbo

Tue, 07/22/2014 - 11:22pm

You don't bring any facts.

freespeech1

Wed, 07/23/2014 - 7:23am

And you don't bring any intelligence so what's your point? Once just once jizzblow bring something of substance to the table.

The Big Dog's back

Wed, 07/23/2014 - 9:07am

The only thing you consider "of substance" is right wing nuttery.

Fromthe419

Wed, 07/23/2014 - 9:20am

Liberals love to damnate the Koch brothers because Harry Reid tells them to. I wonder how many liberals saw them for the first time when the picture was posted at the top of the article. I'd love to see a book like this written about George Soros, and yes as an independent, I do know what he looks like and I've listened to him many times on tv and print.

The Big Dog's back

Wed, 07/23/2014 - 9:37am

It couldn't be that the koch's fund most of the right wing nuttery. Nah.

Contango

Wed, 07/23/2014 - 11:30am

Meanwhile, the extremist American Bolsheviks get the bulk of their millions in revenue from numerous sources like Big Labor:

I for ONE am tired of the damn chest thudding and shoulder checking in the comment sections. YOU ALL know who you are. When I see a comment count suddenly I can count on it being sling s%!t and name calling at each other for 90% of the comments. Grow the f*^k up.

Gottathink

Wed, 07/23/2014 - 9:38pm

At Stop It ...with you 100%.
I'm actually appalled at the childlessness of it all.

jazzbo

Wed, 07/23/2014 - 11:20pm

Yes it is very childlessness.
It's adults.

knowitall

Sat, 07/26/2014 - 5:06pm

The book should not be named "Sons of Witchita......, but "Sons of Bitches ..... The story of the Koch Bros."

The Hero Zone

Sat, 07/26/2014 - 10:34pm

Do you even know why you hate these people? I'd enjoy learning your detailed reasons.

knowitall

Sun, 07/27/2014 - 6:09am

Yes, I do.

The Hero Zone

Sun, 07/27/2014 - 6:47am

Please elaborate as you speak of them as if they ran over your cat on purpose - twice.

Make sure to bear in mind the fact that they are not the only ones who spend mega money in the political arena. Can I also presume that you have the same distaste for PAC-funding, "left-leaning" mega millionaires/organizations? I would hope so with as much personal disdain you just expressed above.

The public unions operate taxpayer funded campaign financing slush funds for the Dems.

knowitall

Mon, 07/28/2014 - 1:09pm

I dislike the PAC system in general. I have ever since the campaign reform was changed to allow big pocket individuals, like the Koch Bros, either democrat or republican to influence simple minded people into voting their way. It makes it their country and their agenda.
I would much rather see our country able to have their leaders and policies influenced by intelligent thinking folks like yourself.....and even some of the others on these blogs, whether I agree with them or not.